Mas’oud Hussein ‘Ayyad

Mas'oud Hussein 'Ayyad (13 February 1941-13 February 2001) was a Lieutenant-Colonel in Force 17, the elite commando unit of Fatah and an aide of Yasser Arafat. On 13 February 2001, his 60th birthday, he was killed by an Israeli Cobra gunship in revenge for a mortar attack on an Israeli settlement.

Biography
Mas'oud Hussein 'Ayyad grew up in a family of seven brothers and four sisters in the Gaza Strip, working with his farmer father in agriculture. After the defeat of June 1967 in the Six-Day War, he joined the Fatah movement and was arrested five times from 17 March 1980 to 8 September 1993. After the return of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to Palestine from Tunisia in 1994, he joined their elite Force 17 commandos and was given command of the Jabalia refugee camp forces. At the outbreak of the Second Intifada in 2000, he imported arms for the Palestinian resistance, and attacked patrols in the Netzarim area.

Death
'Ayyad was held responsible for a failed mortar attack on a Jewish settlement during the war, and Israel also alleged that he wanted to form a Hezbollah cell in the Gaza Strip. While driving a Hyundai in the Jabalia refugee camp, he was attacked by a Cobra gunship on his 60th birthday, 13 February 2001, with the Cobra firing three missiles and the last hitting its target. 'Ayyad was killed due to head and chest injuries from shrapnel and severe burns caused by the explosion of the missile while he was outside of the car.